Blizzard Cochise (2018)

Despite repeated attempts at domestication—thinning its core profile to make it easier to bend, adding carbon on the ends to lower swingweight—Blizzard's Cochise remains a wild child that can only be tamed by a skier both strong and skilled. In contrast to the über-rockered smear sticks that populate the Big Mountain genre of skis, the Cochise is a tank among four-wheel drive Vespas. If you’re getting the impression the Blizzard Cochise isn’t a softhearted companion to the caste of unskilled skiers, you’re a quick study. The ski's 27-m sidecut radius won’t turn across the fall line unless its pilot knows how to drive it from a high edge angle, and it isn’t going to turn much at all at genteel speeds. The Cochise demands more commitment than most advanced skiers are willing to put on the line turn after turn. But athletic skiers who know how to lay it over and understand that the first rule of skiing crud is to charge need a tool for their style, too—and one that will stand up to full-on, fall-line assault. “A strong ski for strong skiers,” is how one tester summed it up.